


Public Welfare Service 


Bulletin No. 1 
(Seventh Edition) 


vane OCT 19 1323 
UNIVERSITY OF iLLINojs 


THE LIBRARY OF THE 


MANUFACTURED GAS 





How It Is Made and Delivered to the Customer 


For Use of School Students, English and 
Current Topics Classes, and Debating Clubs 


Issued by 


ILLINOIS COMMITTEE on PUBLIC UTILITY INFORMATION 
79 West Monroe Street - - - - Chicago, Illinois 


(Additional copies will be furnished on request) 





Lighting methods were exceedingly primitive 
until a little more than a century ago when man- 
ufactured gas first was used successfully for arti- 
ficial illumination. Although gas was discovered 
about the middle of the Seventeenth Century, it 
was not until the later years of the Eighteenth 
Century and the beginning of the Nineteenth 
that man learned how to make it serve a useful 


purpose. 


INTRODUCTORY 


The introduction of gas lighting marked an im- 


portant epoch in the progress of civilization. Gas 
was the first of the number of great discoveries 
and developments which made possible, during 
the last century, greater progress and develop- 


ment in the world 
than in all the thou- 
sands of years of 
civilization which 
had preceded it. 


Gas Companies 
First Utilities: 


Companies organ- 
ized for gas-lighting 
were the first of 
what are now com- 
monly known as 
public utilities. Elec- 
tric light and power, 
telephone and elec- 
tric railway com- 
panies followed at 
later dates. Today, 
these public utilities 
represent an invest- 
ment in plants and 
equipment of about 
$23,000,000,000 in 
the United States 
alone. 


For more than 100 
years gas has lighted 
the way of progress. 
It was used first for 
streetlighting. Later, 
public buildings and 
homes were lighted 
with it. In fact, for 
nearly 75 years, this 
was practically its 
only use. Then came 
electricity. It threat- 
ened to take the 
place of gas lighting. 
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tle” which gave six times more light than the 
open flame burner was perfected in 1896 and gas 
lighting held its own against electricity for many 
years. About the same time, gas came into quite 
general use for cooking. Today it cooks the meals 
for half of the people in the United States, and it 
is used for house heating, incineration, refrigera- 
tion, water heating, garage heating and has thou- 
sands of uses in industry. 


Gas and Electricity Not Competitors: 


Despite the rapid development of the use of 
electric light and power, new uses for gas have in- 


creased its consump- 
tion every year, the 
consumption today 
being double what it 
was ten years ago 
and more than three 
and one-half times 
what it was twenty 
years ago. Electricity 
and gas are not com- 
petitors in the strict 
sense of the word, 
electricity being 
used chiefly for light 
and power and gas 
for heat. There are 
some instances 
where they overlap, 
but speaking broad- 
ly, each has its own 
field. 


Gas, long the ser- 
vant of the house- 
wife, is now being 
utilized by industry 
on a scale never be- 
fore thought pos- 
sible. The industrial 
use of it, a develop- 
ment of the last dec- 
ade, is revolutioniz- 
ing industry. The 
next great step in 
progress will be the 
heating of cities with 
gas and coke, the 
latter a- by-product 
of gas making. When 
this is done, smoke 
will be driven from 
the cities and the na- 
tion’s fuel resources 
conserved. 


GAS— The Modern Fuel 


The Discovery of Gas: 


John Baptist van Helmont, of Brussels, who 
made some of the earliest and most important 
contributions to modern chemistry during the 
Seventeenth Century, was the discoverer of gas. 
He studied. and practiced medicine and later 
turned to chemistry and research work. He ded- 
icated himself at first to alchemy and is numbered 
among the last of that line of philosophers who 
labored in vain in the eternal hope of making 
gold. Although a member of a wealthy and 
ancient family, he preferred his laboratory at 
Velvorde to all the state and splendor of the 
court and eventually abandoned alchemy and 
turned to a more rational philosophy and re- 
search work. 

In the course of his experiments with fuels, 
about 1609, he discovered that they yielded up 
what he described as “a wild spirit.” He found 
that this “spirit” could be produced in various 
Ways: combustion, fermentation and the action 
of acids on limestone. 

In writing of his experiments he said “seventy- 
two pounds of oak charcoal gave one pound of 
cinders and the seventy-one pounds remaining 
served to form the spirit Sylvester.” He re- 
marked “there are bodies which contain this 
spirit, of which they are almost entirely com- 
posed, and is therein fixed and solidified, and are 
made to leave that state by fermentation, as we 
observe in the fermentation of wine. This spirit, 
up to the present time unknown, not susceptible 
of being confined to vessels, nor capable of being 
produced in a visible body, I call by the name of 
gas.” 


Name Delays Development: 


So phantom-like and elusive was van Helmont’s 
discovery that he named it after “geist,” the old 
German word for spirit. Thus, at its very christ- 
ening, gas was enshrouded in a veil of mystery 
that for many generations was to obscure it and 
carry the suggestion of intangibility to the super- 
ficial mind in an age of superstitions. 

In fact, it was nearly 200 years after van Hel- 
mont’s discovery that practical steps were taken 
to harness this elusive spirit and make it serve 
a useful purpose. ; 

Although van Helmont recognized the exist- 
ence of various gases, he perfected no way of 
confining them and it remained for later adven- 
turers into the realm of chemistry research to 
perfect methods of storing the gas after it was 
made, thus opening the way to its later useful- 
ness to mankind. 3 

A few years after van Helmont made his dis- 
coveries and while other chemists were endeavor- 
ing to become acquainted with the hidden laws 
of nature, natural gas was discovered in various 


places in England. These discoveries attracted 
wide attention. 


Discovery of Natural Gas: 


The earliest description of these finds is in a 
communication to the Royal Philosophical So- 
ciety of London in 1667 by Thomas Shirley, in 
which he mentions that his attention was di- 
rected about eight years previously to what was 
considered to be a spring “where the water did 
burn like oyle” and “did boyle and heave like 
water in a pot.” Upon investigation, he found 
this to “arise from a strong breath, as it were, a 
wind which ignited on the approach of a lighted 
candle,” and “did burn bright and vigorous.” 


Natural gas was discovered in other parts of 
the world, and in many instances it was believed 
to be the work of a supernatural agency and, in 
some places where the gas became ignited, caus- 
ing continuous fire, fire-worshippers erected 
temples. 

In Greece, one summer afternoon several cen- 
turies ago, a herdsman was tending his goats. 
He noticed that some of them wandered about in 
an unusual manner whenever they came to a cer- 
tain spot. He walked over to investigate the 
cause of their peculiar behavior and became af- 
fected himself by something which arose from 
the ground. He ran to the village and told his 
neighbors. They hurried back in great excite- 
ment and all had the same experience. They 
became talkative and light-headed. They acted 
queerly and their conversation was disconnected 
and difficult to understand. The villagers agreed 
that they were in the presence of a supernatural 
agency and decided that a god was living there. 
Later, they appointed a priestess to communicate 
with this god and built a temple where persons 
might go for advice. Thus, the Oracle of Delphi 
became famous. 


Gas and The Oracle of Delphi: 


The gas at Delphi is thought to have been nat- 
ural gas. This gas was found in many parts of 
the world, but it was many centuries before its 
value was understood and utilized. 

Long before manufactured gas was produced 
by van Helmont and the natural gas wells began 
to attract attention in Europe, the Chinese are 
said to have utilized natural gas. Discovering 
it during a period of Chinese . development, 
which later deteriorated, the Chinese piped the 
gas through tubes of bamboo and used it for 
lighting, but it never became of popular or gen- 
eral use. 

Dr. John Clayton, a Yorkshire minister with a 
liking for the sciences, robbed the spirit of some 
of its elusive qualities and brought it within the 
realm of practical things by experiments con- 


ducted from 1660 to 1670. He found at Wigan 
what he described as a “shelly coal.” Heating 
this coal in a closed vessel, he found that a “spirit 
which issued out caught fire at the flame of a 
candle.” 


Superstitions Block Progress: 


Although Dr. Clayton succeeded in producing 
van Helmont’s “wild spirit” from coal, he, too, 
failed to turn gas to practical use. 

Progress in the development of gas was slow. 
Civilization had passed through the sperm oil 
age of lighting to the age of the wax and tallow 
candle, which was still the common method of 
illumination late in the Eighteenth Century, when 
William Murdock devoted himself to the task of 
producing gas from coal on a scale that would 
make possible its use for lighting. By distilling 
coal in an iron retort and conducting the gas 
through 70 feet of tinned and copper tubes, Mur- 
dock, in 1792, succeeded in lighting his home at 
Redruth in Cornwall. 

Murdock was a construction and erection en- 
gineer for James Watt, developer of the steam 
engine. In 1798 he had progressed so far that he 
moved from Cornwall to the works of Boulton, 
Watt & Company, manufacturers of steam en- 
gines at the Soho Foundry, where he built an 
apparatus on a large scale and lighted the factory 
with gas. 


First-Successful Gas Lighting: 


On the occasion of the celebration of the Peace 
of Amiens—the signing of a treaty between Great 
Britain and France, Spain and Holland—in April, 
1802, a public display of the new light was made 
which attracted wide attention and comment. 
Matthews, one of the earliest writers on gas 
lighting, in describing this spectacle, says: 

“The illumination of the Soho Works on this 
occasion was one of extraordinary splendor. The 
whole front of that extensive range of buildings 
was ornamented with a great variety of devices 
that admirably displayed many of the varied 
forms of which gas light is susceptible. This 
luminous spectacle was as novel as it was aston- 
ishing and Birmingham poured forth in numer- 
ous population to gaze at and to admire this 
wonderful display of the combined effects of sci- 
ence and art. The writer was one of those who 
had the gratification of witnessing this first 
splendid public exhibition of gas illumination 
and retains a vivid recollection of the admiration 
it produced.” 


Murdock was a hard worker and a versatile in- . 


ventor. He made many important improvements 
in steam engines, in addition to his development 
in the use of gas. He introduced the “D” slide 
valve, which is used in gas meters as well as in 
steam engines. 


On one occasion, it is related, Murdock desired 
to stop the flow of gas, which was burning from 


an open tube. To accomplish this, he clapped a 
thimble over the flaming end of the tube. The 
thimble had been pierced in many places and the 
gas coming through the holes in smaller volume 
was brought into contact with a greater propor- 
tion of air at the point of combustion. The result 
was a much better light. This incident was the 
origin of the “gas tip’ which later came into 
general use for lighting. 


Murdock Father of Industry: 


Murdock’s achievements were so practical that 
he is recognized as the father of the gas industry 
while in France, Phillippe Lebon was the most 
active and successful contributor. The latter ob- 
tained a patent in September, 1799, for making 
gas by distilling coal or wood and lighted his 
home and gardens in Paris in 1801. 

The art of gas manufacture took definite form 
after Murdock had blazed the way. The demon- 
strations of both Murdock and Lebon attracted 
wide attention and praise by the press and thus 
came incidentally to the attention of Frederick 
Albert Winsor, a German, who was destined to 
play a most prominent part in establishing the 
first gas company in the world and probably 
speeding up the general use of gas for domestic 
purposes. 


Winsor’s Discoveries Important: 


Winsor, who seems to have been more of a 
promoter than a scientific research worker, jour- 
neyed from Frankfort to Paris where he wit- 
nessed several times “the wondrous effects of 
common smoke being made to burn with greater 
brilliancy and beauty than wax or oil.” He en- 
deavored, unsuccessfully, to learn the secret from 
Lebon. In 1803, at London, he began experi- 
ments and demonstrations which led to practical 
results. 

He delivered many lectures and was the first 
to advocate the distribution of gas for lighting 
purposes from central sources. He proposed the 
organization of a company for “enlightening the 
inhabitants of London,” but he stated his claims 
so extravagantly that much opposition to his plan 
was aroused. 


First Patents Obtained: 


May 18, 1804, Winsor obtained the first Eng- 
lish patent for gas-making. He gave a public 
exhibition of lighting the Lyceum theatre in 
London with gas and the London Times, six 
weeks later, printed the following description of 
the demonstration: 

“Sir Joseph Banks, ever indefatigable in exam- 
ining and promoting useful discoveries, went last 
Thursday evening, for the second time, with a 
large party of his noble and scientific friends to 
the Lyceum to witness the incredible effects of 


smoke; the whole theatre was lighted with the 
same, in a novel and pleasing manner; the arch 
of lights above the stage had a very striking 
effect, and from the English grate on the stage 
(which may be fixed in every room) issued a 
very brilliant and fanciful light. The products 
of tar, ammonia, and coke were produced and 
much approved of. Several experiments were 
made during the course of the lecture, such as 
boiling a tea kettle and melting ores in a few 
minutes on a table. It was also proved that a 
brilliant flame adapted to lighthouses could be 
formed, which no rain or storm could extinguish. 
The noble and learned visitors, after a minute ex- 
amination of the apparatus, stoves and products, 
expressed the liveliest satisfaction.” 


Prejudices Delay Progress: 


Winsor had a vision of the future of the gas 
industry, but he was confronted with a Herculean 
task in fighting against old-established customs 
and prejudices. All of his predictions regarding 
the utilization of gas have proved true during 
the last fifty years. Although gas was used only 
for lighting for many decades after Winsor es- 
tablished the first gas company more than 100 
years ago, he foresaw some of its present-day 
uses. 

“Since the beginning of the world,” said Win- 
sor in one of his early appeals, “mankind has 
lost above eighty per cent in all combustibles 
by the mere evaporation of smoke. This very 
smoke, which often proves troublesome and dan- 
gerous to health and houses, is now discovered to 
contain the most valuable substances, and if prop- 
erly extracted, gathered, washed, purified and re- 
solved, we gain no less than five costly products, 
viz., oil, pitch, acid, coke and gas; which latter 
product not only furnishes the most intense heat, 
and the purest light, whenever it is wanted, but 
can also be applied to supersede the dangerous 
and expensive steam-engines, because a cele- 
brated French engineer proves that the azote it 
produces, by a mixture with the atmospheric air, 
is capable of tenfold power if employed at the 
freezing point only.” 


Winsor Ridiculed: 


Winsor claimed that gas could be used for 
heating as well as lighting and that it would 
result in a three-fourths saving in the construc- 
tion of buildings because of the elimination of 
chimneys, stoves and other equipment used in 
burning other fuels. 

“Nay,” he remarked in one of his pamphlets, 
“St will almost appear incredible to assert that the 
same table, desk or sideboard, which furnishes a 
light or flame will serve to warm any room and 
even dress my victuals in case of need; and, by 
the mere turning of a cock, or the corking or un- 
corking of a small pipe or tube.” 

Not content with exploiting the wonders of 
gas in prose alone, he sometimes did it in verse. 


The ardent manner in which Winsor pursued 
his subject and his extravagant claims of the ad- 
vantages of gas lighting excited great opposition 
to his scheme and made him the object of ridicule. 
Sir Walter Scott, who was much opposed to 
Winsor’s scheme, wrote to a friend, saying: 
“There is a madman proposing to light London 
with—what do you think? Why, with smoke.” 

Napoleon, when he heard of the plan to light 
London’s streets with gas, dismissed the idea as 
“une grande folie.” Actors in the music halls 
poked fun at the tireless inventor and promoter 
and a writer of humor burlesqued Winsor and his 
claims in a verse. ' 


Despite the opposition and ridicule, Winsor 
continued his task and succeeded in getting the 
support of a large and influential body of share- 
holders in his company and the first public street 
lighting with gas took place in Pall Mall in Lon- 
don on January 28, 1807. This demonstration 
did much to expel many of the doubts regarding 
the practicability of his discovery. 


First Gas Company in 1812: 


Winsor sought for his company the exclusive 
privilege of lighting by gas in all the British 
possessions, but such a broad charter was re- 
fused. In April, 1812, Parliament granted a 
charter to his company, “The London and West- 
minster Gas Light & Coke Company,” and thus 
the first gas company in the world came into 
being. 

On December 31, 1813, Westminster Bridge 
was lighted with gas, and the populace of Lon- 
don was dumbfounded by the spectacle. It was 
many years before the citizens of that city be- 
came accustomed to gas lighting, although it was 
extended rapidly after the lighting of the bridge. 
People thought the flame came through the pipes 
and many objections were raised when the sys- 
tem was installed in the House of Commons. So 
little was known about gas, it was thought that 
the “pipes would burn the building” and they 
were set far away from the walls, and the mem- 
bers of Parliament, fearful of being burned, 
would not touch them with ungloved hands. 
Lamplighters at first refused, through fear, to 
light the new gas lamps, and later crowds fol- 
lowed them to watch their operations every 
evening. 

Following the success of gas lighting in Lon- 
don it spread quickly to other countries. In the 
United States, Baltimore, in 1816, was the first 
city to light its streets with gas, and, in 1820, 
Paris, France, was so lighted. 

Little did van Helmont, working in his labor- 
atory in Brussels, discovering the mysterious 
spirit which he could not imprison, think that 
his discovery would be the foundation of an in- 
dustry which in the United States alone today 
represents an investment of about $4,500,000,000. 


First American Gas Company in 1816: 


Although there were a few isolated instances 
of gas being used by individuals in other cities 
previously, introduction of gas lights in Rem- 
brandt Peale’s museum in Baltimore in 1816 
proved to be such a sensation and success that it 
led to the organization of a gas company and the 
lighting of the streets of that city with gas. 

“Gas Lights without Oil, Tallow, Wick or 
Smoke” in the “Museum and Gallery of the Fine 
Arts in Holliday Street” was the way Peale made 
his announcement in newspaper advertisements 
on June 13, 1816. An admission fee was charged 
for viewing this wonderful light and people 
flocked to see it. The exhibition was so success- 
ful that talk of lighting the streets of Baltimore 
began immediately. 


The city council passed an ordinance on June 
17, 1816, permitting Peale and others to manu- 
facture gas, lay pipes in the streets and contract 
with the city for street lighting. Thus the first 
gas company founded in the United States began 
to operate in Baltimore in 1816. On February 
5, 1817, it was incorporated as the Gas Light 
Company of Baltimore. 


First Home Lighted With Gas: 


A few years earlier, in 1812, David Melville of 
Newport, R. I., lighted his home and the street 
in front of it with gas which he manufactured. 
He also lighted a factory at Pawtucket and in- 
duced the government to use gas at Beaver Tail 
Light House. 


Introduction of gas lighting was not rapid be- 
cause it was a radical 
change from the com- 
mon methods of light- 
ing in those days. It 
was regarded with fear 
by many people and as 
many objections were 
made against it in the 
United States as had 
been made in London 
when introduced there. 
A proposal to introduce 
gas lights in Philadel- 
phia met with strong 
opposition. In 1830, 
after gas lighting was 
used in Baltimore, Bos- 
ton and New York, 
Philadelphia still 
fought against it and 


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when the city finally consented to the use of gas 
as a substitute for candles, lanterns and whale-oil 
lamps which were the common methods of light- 
ing in those days. 


Many Objections to Gas Lighting: 
In New England, the proposal to light the 


streets of one of the towns with gas aroused a - 


storm of protest. Following are some of the 
arguments printed in a New England paper, 
which represented the best and most serious 
thought of that time. ' 

1. A religious objection. Artificial illumina- 
tion is an attempt to interfere with the divine 
plan of the world which had pre-ordained that it 
should be dark during the night time. 

2. A health objection. Emanations of illumin- 
ating gas are injurious. Lighted streets will in- 
cline people to remain late out of doors, thus 
leading to increase of ailments by colds. 

3. A moral objection. The fear of darkness 
will vanish and drunkenness and depravity in- 
crease. 

4. Police objection. Horses will be frightened 
and thieves ‘emboldened. 

5. Objection from the people. If streets are 
illuminated every night, such constant illumina- 
tion will rob festive occasions of their charm. 


Gas Lighting Spreads: 

High rates made gas prohibitive to all but the 
rich and it was not until the year 1865 that the 
use of gas for home lighting began to make any 
great progress. 

Gas was introduced in Chicago in September, 


How Manufactured Ga 


MANUFACTURE OF COAL GAS 


MANUFACTURE OF CARBURETTED 
BLUE GAS 


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manufacturing processes are 
One is the manufacture 
of gas by the distillation of bituminous coal in coking 
ovens which makes what is known as coal gas. 


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number of wooden trays having slats running cross- 
wise in checker board fashion and where a water 
spray at the top of the tower keeps the slats wet 
and washes the impurities down over the wet surfaces. 


‘‘A Public Remon- 
strance Against Light- 
ing with Gas” was 
drawn up by prominent 
citizens who were suc- 
cessful in blocking the 
progress of street illu- 
mination until 1836 


other makes gas through what is known as the car- 
bureted blue gas process. Coke and steam and usually 
an enriching material such as oil are used in making 
gas by this process. All gas companies do not use 
both processes. A description of both processes will 
be found on pages 10 and 11. 

Following is a brief description of some of the gas- 
making and distributing equipment pictured above: 
Condenser 

This is fitted with tubes surrounded by water and 
arranged so gas goes through the tubes and the 
water absorbs the heat in the passing gas. 

Scrubber 
This consists of a cylindrical tower containing a 


6 


Purifier 

This is a large box containing two trays of oxide 
of iron where the sulphur impurities in the gas 
are absorbed by the iron and removed from the gas. 
The top or lid of the purifier can be raised, as shown 
by the dotted lines above, for changing the oxide. 
A pile of oxide undergoing airing is shown on the 


floor underneath the purifier. . 


Gas Holder 

This is merely an open top circular tank filled with 
water in which a smaller open bottom tank is placed 
so that the gas can fill the space between the water 
and the top of the smaller inside tank called a “lift.” 


5 











1850, the city at that time having a population 
of only 23,047. Admiring crowds of citizens 
watched the lighting of the gas street lamps night- 
ly. The state legislature, the year previous, had 
authorized the formation of the Chicago Gas 
Light & Coke Company. Gas was introduced 
in Quincy, Rock Island and Springfield, Ill., in 
1854, and in Galena, Ottawa and Peoria in 1855. 
Its use in other cities of Illinois and the country 
followed rapidly. 


Improvements in Light: 


In 1855, Robert Wilhelm von Bunsen invented 
the blue flame gas burner, which is still in use 
today in many places. With this burner it is 
possible to burn gas economically with an in- 
tensely hot, but smokeless, flame. It was such 
an improvement over the burners previously used 
that it was instrumental in giving a great impetus 
to the use of gas. 

Gas lighting spread and was the common 
means of home illumination in the cities of the 
land when Thomas A. Edison invented the elec- 
tric light. 

Right at the time when the new electric light 
threatened to supplant gas, Carl Auer, who 
studied under Bunsen at Heidelberg, in Ger- 
many, made a notable discovery for which he 
was awarded the title of “von Welsbach” when 
he gave to the world the incandescent mantle 
bearing this name, which is used today generally 
wherever gas is used for lighting. 

Auer discovered, accidentally, that certain rare 
earths glow brightly when subjected to the flame 
of a gas burner. He experimented and found 


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; is raised the greater must be the resulting gas pres- 
the gas decreases, the lift descends. The weight of sure. 


To furnish a more uniform pressure to the con- 


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that by introducing oxides of cerium and thorium 
on a cotton webbing, as a “mantle” covering or 
surrounding the gas flame, these substances 
could be heated to incandescence without losing 
form or falling apart and then would produce a 
much better light than the flat flame or slit-tip 
burner. Such a mantle produced: six times as 
much light and used less gas than did the flat 
flame burner. But, like all other improvements 
in lighting, progress in the use of gas mantles 
was slow and they were not used to any great 
extent until 1890. Inverted gas mantles were 
not introduced until 1900. In 1896 the Welsbach 
mantle was applied to street lighting with success. 

At the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia 
in 1876, a baking powder company demonstrated 
the baking of cake on gas stoves but it was not 
until about 1895 that any great effort was made 
to popularize the use of gas for cooking and 
heating. 


Gas in Industry: 


The industrial use of gas is a comparatively 
recent development, this modern fuel finding 
extensive use in industry only within the last 
ten years. 

Manufacturers, especially those in the metal- 
lurgical industries, discovered gas to be a highly 
efficient fuel for heat-treating metals. Many 
other uses have been found for gas in factories, 
until today it is estimated that there are no less 
than 60,000 different industrial uses for gas. 

The fact that gas is a clean fuel makes it de- 
sirable for use in processes where cleanliness is 
essential to good products. The absence of 
smoke and soot pro- 
duces better working 
conditions in factories 
where it is used. Gas 
also lends itself readily 
to automatic control. 

As gas is available 
by the turn of a lever, 
factory owners who are 
using it have no money 
invested in a fuel sup- 
ply; they do not worry 
‘about changes in the 
price of coal or oil, nor 
about railroad conges- 
tions and car shortages. 

No space is needed 
for storing fuel or 





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Station Meter 

This is merely a large meter which measures the 
volume of gas manufactured as it goes to the storage 
holder. 
Storage 

Gas is made at practically a uniform rate for 24 
hours. The rate of use of the gas varies largely 
during different hours of the day. The function of 
the holder is to equalize the input and output. 


Governor 

As the gas comes into the holder and raises the 
telescoping sections, the weight of the metal that the 
gas must support increases and this increases the 
pressure on the gas, therefore the higher the holder 


sumer, the gas now goes through a governor which 
is merely a mechanical device where a variable intake 
pressure is changed to a practically uniform pressure 
in the distributing mains. 

Delivery of Gas 

From the governor the gas goes into the street 
mains, through the curb cock, service line, house 
meter and to the consumer’s appliance. 

Like the realization of an alchemist’s dream, we 
have a serviceable transmutation of a baser substance 
into one of greater value in the unnoticed transmu- 
tation of crude, dirty, inert coal into energetic gas 
which can then be transmitted to a consumer far 
away where the turning of a gas cock makes it in- 
stantaneously available. 


7 





ashes and there is no 
cost of ash removal, 
which is a big item 
when coal is burned. 
No insurance is neces- 
sary on fuel stock and 
lower insurance rates 
on plants are obtained 
when gas is used, 


Its Many Uses: 


Gas is being used extensively today for baking 
bread in big bakeries, making candy, roasting 
coffee, smoking meat, pasteurizing milk, press- 
ing clothes, melting glass and many different 
kinds of metal, vulcanizing automobile tires, 
drying clothes, drying lumber, forging, heating 
rivets, galvanizing, welding, cutting metal, an- 
nealing, hardening and tempering alloy steel, 
tool dressing, bolt and rivet making, welding lo- 
comotive tubes, heating steel structural materials 
for fabrication, flanging and bending pipe, plate 
heating, soft metal melting, aluminum refining, 
metal cutting, lead refining, silver refining, in 
treating various metals in ovens and for many 
other purposes. One Chicago manufacturer uses 
gas in thirty different processes. 


Many modern laundries generate steam by gas, 
and it is being used more each year in small in- 
dustrial steam power and heating plants. Like- 
wise each year sees gas used more extensively 
in the home. 


How Coal is Wasted: 


Experts estimate that the heat energy of at 
least 1,800 pounds of coal is lost on an average 
from each ton of coal mined now in America. In 
gas making, one ton of coal will produce approx- 
imately 1,400 pounds of smokeless fuel (coke), 
10,000 to 12,000 cubic feet of gas, 25 pounds of 
ammonium sulphate, two to three gallons of ben- 
zol and nine to twelve gallons of coal-tar. 


When coal is used for the manufacturing of 
gas, two useful and smokeless fuels are obtained: 
gas and coke, and at the same time, valuable 
by-products, which otherwise would be wasted, 
are saved. 


Smokeless Cities Possible: 


Experts believe that smokeless cities are pos- 
sible within twenty years by making greater use 


1926 
459,000,000,000 
ca — 


CONSUMPTION OF 
MANUFACTURED GAS 
IN THE UNITED STATES 


1921 
1906-1926 ‘ 333,997,626,000 
CUBIC FEET 


1916 ie 
231,381,313,000 j= 
__CUBIC FEET} 


1911 
159,100,874,000 f°: 
CUBIC FEET. 





1 
122,819.725,000 
UBIC FEET 








During 1926 the people of the United States 
used 459,000,000,000 cubic feet of manufac- 
tured gas—almost four times as much as in 
1906. The amount used is increasing each 
year. 


of manufactured gas and coke. Coke is a smoke- © 
less fuel and its use is increasing constantly in 
place of “raw” coal. As coke is produced in man- 
ufacturing coal gas, its use aids in fuel conser- 
vation. 

Conservation of our natural resources, includ- 
ing coal, is one of the big problems of the age. 
Back in the days of the Civil War approximately 
33,000,000 tons of coal were mined annually and 
the consumption of petroleum, which was then 
just coming into use, was about two-thirds of a 
gallon per person. Today, that would be less 
than one month’s supply of coal and the use of 
petroleum has increased many thousand per cent. 

Coal and oil supplies will not last forever and 
maximum efficiency must be derived from them. 


Present Development: 


In the little more than one hundred years since 
the first gas company was organized in Baltimore 
the manufactured gas industry of the United 
States has grown until today it ranks among the 
leading industries of the country. 

Gas companies now serve more than half of 
this nation’s population and are practically all 
under private management. Some gas companies 
serve one city and others serve a number of com- 
munities to supply gas at more reasonable rates. 

I{ all of the employes of these gas companies 
and their families lived in one place, they would 
constitute a city of more than 400,000 inhabitants. 


How Gas Consumption Increases: 


The consumption of gas has increased steadily 
year after year, until now it is nearly four times 
what it was 20 years ago. In the last six years 
alone the use of gas has increased by 125,002,374,- 
000 cubic feet, or approximately 37 per cent in the 
United States. 

To make these billions of cubic feet of gas, the 
gas companies use more than 8,310,000 tons of 
bituminous coal, about 2,080,000 tons of anthra- 
cite coal, 3,320,000 tons of coke and 1,010,000,000 
gallons of oil each year. 

More gas is consumed today for cooking, heat- 
ing water, illumination and other domestic uses 
than for any other single purpose. About 
71.24 per cent of the gas sold is used in this 
way; 26.86 per cent is used for industrial and 
commercial purposes and 1.90 per cent for uses 
not classified. Use of gas for house-heating— 
gas-fired boilers in place of hot air furnaces and 
hot water or steam heating systems—is increas- 
ing rapidly. 

While the big gas holders, the cylindrical 
shaped tanks which stand upright in big steel 
frames, are the most conspicuous feature of a 
gas plant, these holders are only the storage place 
for the gas as it is manufactured and awaiting 
use. There are buildings nearby where the gas 
is manufactured, and buried under the ground, 
throughout every city enjoying this service, are 
the mains which carry the gas to the consumers. 


There were 86,800 miles of these gas mains in 
the United States in 1926, not counting the hun- 
dreds of thousands of miles of pipes which lead 
from the bigger mains to the homes or factories 
of consumers. 


Owners of Gas Companies: 


Gas companies and other utilities, such as elec- 
tric light, telephone and street railway companies, 
are not owned by those employed to manage 
them, but by thousands of thrifty investors who 
have bought stocks and bonds with their savings. 
It is only through sales of these securities that 
funds are provided for building the plants for the 
service of the people. 


These companies are regulated by state com- 
missions in practically all of the States of the 
Union. These commissions fix the rates and su- 
pervise the service of the gas companies and 
other utilities. In Illinois the regulatory body 
is the Illinois Commerce Commission, which is a 
part of the state government. 

Under the system of regulation by the state, 
gas companies and other utilities are permitted to 
earn a fair return on their investment. If their 
earnings are considered excessive at any time 
their rates are adjusted. If their expenses in- 
crease, as during the recent war period, when 
wages and the cost of materials exceeded normal 
costs, commissions authorize increased rates, to 
permit the earning of costs of production and a 
reasonable interest return on the value of the 
property used or usable in the business. 

Neither gas companies nor any of the other 
public utilities are allowed to charge rates that 
are high enough to enable them to make further 
additions to their plants from profits. Exten- 
sions and additions must be built with new money 
raised by the sale of additional securities. These 
securities cannot be sold until the regulatory 
commissions have investigated and are satisfied 
that the money is to be spent for needed im- 
provements. 


Gas a “Natural Monopoly:” 


The gas business is a natural monopoly be- 
cause good and economical service is best assured 
by having only one gas company in a given terri- 
tory. In other days some of the larger cities had 
two or more competing companies but experi- 
ence proved the fallacy of the plan. Existence 
of more than one company to supply any utility 
service in a given territory means economic 
waste and duplication of investment, plants, of- 
fices, employes and general expense. Economic 
law has generally forced competing gas com- 
panies to consolidate. 

All of Chicago, for example, is today served by 
The Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company, 
which is a consolidation of fifteen other gas com- 
panies. This company was incorporated under a 
special act of the state legislature, February 12, 
1855, and was the second oldest of the combined 


gas companies. It acquired all competing com- 
panies by authority of an act of the legislature 
passed in 1897. 


How Manufacturing Processes Change: 


Gas originally was made by distilling coal, this 
being the method until 1887 when keen competi- 
tion caused new processes to be developed. When 
the principal use of gas was for lighting with 
open flame burners, gas having a high candle 
power content was made. Gas engineers invented 
the carbureted blue gas process in which steam 
and an enriching material, usually naphtha, crude 
oil or a hydro-carbon is used with coke. The en- 
riching material increased the lighting content of 
gas and later the mantle made possible a large 
volume of light with gas of a low candle power. 

Gas now is used almost universally for heating 
purposes in homes and industries and now the 
important factor in gas is the calorific (heat) 
quality, measured in British thermal units, com- 
monly signified as B.t.u’s. One of these units is 
the amount of heat required to raise the tempera- 
ture of a pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. 


Principal Uses of Gas: 


The practice of requiring a high candle power 


illuminating value is now almost obsolete and it 


has been abolished in Illinois. As more than 80 
per cent of the gas sold today is used to produce 
heat, its heating qualities are more essential than 
candle power content. Gas is used to heat rooms, 
houses and even office and apartment buildings, 
and heat produced by gas is used widely for cook- 
ing, for heating water and in hundreds of dif- 
ferent manufacturing processes where economi- 
cal, clean heat is essential. 


Even for lighting today, candle power does not 
matter, as practically all gas lighting is done with 
incandescent mantles. 


Each year equipment for burning gas for heat- 
ing purposes is being installed in thousands of 
homes and eventually this will be one of the big- 
gest uses for gas, leaders in the industry believe. 
When the walls and roof of a house are insulated 
to prevent the escape of heat, it costs no more 
to heat with gas than it does with coal. As there 
are no ashes, no dirt to soil the furnishings, and 
the temperature of the house is uniform and 
controlled automatically, gas heating is becoming 
increasingly popular. 


How Gas Is Made: 


Coal gas and so-called carbureted blue gas are 
the two most common kinds of manufactured gas. 

The series of operations connected with the 
preparation and distribution of coal gas embraces 
the process of distillation of the coal, condensa- 
tion, scrubbing or washing, purification, measur- 
ing, storing and distribution to the mains from 
which the consumer’s supply is drawn. As dif- 


ferent kinds of coal vary greatly in their chem- 
ical constitution, there is a wide difference in their 
value and usefulness for the manufacture of gas. 


An Interesting Experiment: 


If the bowl of an ordinary clay pipe is filled 
with small fragments of bituminous coal, the top 
oi the pipe closed with clay and the bowl placed 
in a bright fire, smoke may be seen to issue im- 
mediately from the pipe stem projecting beyond 
the fire. The smoke soon ceases and if a light 
then is applied the issuing gas burns with a 
bright, steady flame while a black, thin, tarry 
liquid also oozes from the stem. After this com- 
bustion there remains in the bowl a quantity of 
“char” or coke. 

This simple experiment is, on a small scale, an 
exact counterpart of the process by which the 
distillation of coal is accomplished in the manu- 
facture of coal gas. The thin, tarry liquid con- 
tains all of the wonderful by-products. 


How Coal Gas Is Made: 


In manufacturing coal gas, coal is heated in 
big retorts or ovens, made of iron, clay or brick. 
These are kept at a bright red heat. Care must 
be exercised to preserve the quality of the gas 
from sulphur compounds which are given aff 
when the coke is overheated. 

Upon leaving the retort, the gas is about the 
color of smoke and is, of course, at a higher tem- 
perature. It is necessary to reduce the tempera- 
ture, which also reduces the bulk, and to remove 
whatever impurities it is carrying along with it. 
The first process of condensation is performed by 
having the gas pass through a series of water- 
cooled pipes, which rise from a trough partly 
filled with water. In this process, the gas is not 
only considerably reduced in temperature but the 
tar and ammoniacal liquor condense and drop to 
the bottom of the pipes. Here they encounter 
the water, the tar sinking to the bottom and 
the ammoniacal liquor floating on top. 

The progress of the gas would be impeded and 
a back-pressure on the retorts created by the ob- 
stacles it must pass unless it were helped on its 
way. Engines, called exhausters, are therefore 
installed, which draw the gas from the condensers 
and force it to the storage tank. 

The gas next passes through a scrubber which 
removes from it all that remains of ammonia, 
sulphureted hydrogen, and other gas impurities. 
The agencies used are partly mechanical and 
partly chemical. The gas first is passed through 
a scrubber, ordinarily a high tower or a hollow 
column. It is filled with either scrap tin or 
coarse shavings, laid on boards arranged in tiers. 
The gas works its way through these obstruc- 
tions, leaving tar and other impurities on the 
sharp edges it encounters. It then passes on to 
the purifiers. 


10 


How Impurities Are Removed: 

Purifiers are flat iron boxes generally arranged 
in sets of four. Three of them are placed so the 
gas passes through them in succession while the 
fourth is being renewed. The boxes are filled 
with shavings which have been soaked in a solu- 
tion of oxide of iron. The oxide serves the pur- 
pose of decomposing sulphureted hydrogen, the 
portion of the sulphur forming a sulphide with 
the iron. When a sufficient quantity of gas has 
passed, the box is opened and the contents are 
removed and exposed to the air, under which 
condition they combine with the oxygen and 
again become fitted for use as a purifier. 

The gas is now ready for use and is passed on 
through the plant meter and stored in the gas 
holders. 


How Carbureted Water Gas Is Made: 

Carbureted water gas is manufactured in three 
round steel towers, the generator, the carbureter 
and the superheater. 

About three-fourths of the gas is generated or 
manufactured in the generator which is lined 
with fire brick. The generator is connected with 
a similarly shaped tower—the carbureter. This 
part, also, is lined with fire brick, and is almost 
filled with layers of bricks placed criss-cross, thus 
forming a sort of honeycomb arrangement. The 
carbureter serves the same purpose in a gas plant 
as it does in an automobile, that is to gasify a 
liquid. But, in the gas works, gas-oil is used, 
while in an automobile gasoline is used. The 
carbureter is connected to a third steel tower 
also honeycombed with brick. This is the super- 
heater and is used to complete the work of the 
carbureter. 


The Part Steam Plays: 

The generator is filled with a good quality of 
coke and the fuel bed is ignited. Air is blown 
through the apparatus for from two to four min- 
utes or until the fuel bed is white hot. The hot 
gas from the burning fuel in the generator passes 
through the honeycombs of the carbureter and 
superheater. 

At this time the air is shut off, and steam is 
sent into the generator. As the steam passes 
through the hot coke, it reacts chemically with 
the fuel, producing two gases, carbon monoxide 
and hydrogen, which pass into the top of the 
carbureter. 

Because this gas mixture has a low heating 
value, it must be “enriched.” To do this, gas oil 
is sprayed into the top of the carbureter. As this 
oil passes through the honeycomb of hot bricks 
in the carbureter and superheater, it is broken 
up into gases which have a high heating value. 
The gases from the oil and coke or coal mix and 
are now ready to be purified. 

The hot crude carbureted blue gas passes from 
the superheater through water in the wash box 
where some of the tar is removed and the gas 


cooled. From the wash box, the gas passes 
through the hot scrubber, coming into intimate 
contact with hot water which removes most of 
the tar without removing the enriching vapors. 
Gas leaving the hot scrubber contains much 
water vapor which must be removed by cooling 
the gas in the condenser. From the condenser, 
the gas passes to the relief holder, which is a 
tank holding from a few thousand to several 
thousand cubic feet of gas, depending upon the 
size of the plant. The tank, or holder, equalizes 
the flow of gas through the purifying apparatus. 

From the relief holder a pump, the exhauster, 
forces the impure gas through the shavings 
scrubbers—towers which are filled with wood 
shavings. The remaining droplets of tar stick 
to the shavings. 


All Impurities Removed: 


However, the gas still contains hydrogen sul- 
phide, a gas which has a bad odor and, unless 
removed, might ruin the gas range and the finish 
of the woodwork in the home. So the gas is 
forced through purifiers and shavings keep the 
iron oxide porous so that the gas will be brought 
into intimate contact with the oxide. As the gas 
passes through the oxide, the hydrogen sulphide 
in the gas unites chemically with the oxide arid 
produces iron sulphide, a solid which remains 
in the purifying box, while the pure gas passes 
on, ready for use. 


The By-Products of Gas: 


The manufacture of gas yields many by-prod- 
ucts from which are made commodities used daily 
by everyone. Some of these valuable by-products 
are: Drugs, fertilizers, tar, ammonia, colors for 
dyestuffs, moth balls (naphthalene), photo- 
graphic chemicals, carbons for electric arcs, ex- 
plosives, materials for perfumes, coke and sac- 
charin. 

The common method of burning coal destroys 
many valuable by-products which are saved when 
coal is used for making gas. As only about 16 
per cent of the soft coal mined in the United 
States is “coked,” or used in the manufacture of 
gas, it is easy to understand that the consumption 
of coal by unscientific methods is wasteful and 
extravagant, not only producing smoke but de- 
stroying valuable contents. 

If coal is burned in the open-air or in a stove 
or furnace, nothing is left but ashes. In making 
coal gas, coal is heated in a closed retort where 
the oxygen of the air cannot reach it. After the 
gas has been driven off, carbon or coke remains, 
and is used in making carbureted blue gas and 
for many other purposes. 

Chemists also have found thousands of ways to 
use the tar, ammonia, sulphur and other products 
removed from the gas in the purifying processes, 
and the uses of these three products cover a wide 
field from the explosives of the battlefield to the 
perfumes of the society ballroom. 


The Gas Meter: 


The gas used by every customer is measured 
by the gas meter, one of the simplest and most 
accurate of measuring devices. It was invented 
by William Richards in 1844 and was so simple 
that no substantial improvement has been made 
upon it since. 


Home Sree ice sah 
awe 





A Gas Meter 


A meter that is properly located and protected 
from extreme heat and cold will measure gas 
accurately, day and night for years without re- 
quiring attention. In spite of this evidence of 
reliability, most gas meters are examined period- 
ically. The Illinois Commerce Commission, 
which regulates the gas companies and other 
utilities of this state, requires that gas meters be 
removed from the customers’ premises and tested 
for accuracy every seventh year of service. 


The meter is divided into two parts, the upper 
containing the registering apparatus and the 
lower containing two diaphragms or bellows. The 
lower part is divided by a vertical metal parti- 
tion, each compartment containing a bellows. 


How the Meter Operates: 


A meter operates as human lungs. The bel- 
lows are of leather and inhale and exhale gas 
just as the human lungs take in and send out air, 
but the bellows work one after the other; that is, 
when one is inhaling gas from the mains the 
other is exhaling gas into the house pipes. 

Gas must be turned on at a burner or appli- 
ance to set the gas meter in operation. Hence, 
the consumer alone is the “engineer” of the 
meter. 


11 


When the burner or appliance is lighted pres- 
sure is reduced simultaneously at the outlet of 
the meter and immediately gas at the inlet side 
of the meter starts to flow toward the outlet port. 
In its flow through the meter the gas must pass 
through channels and chambers and in so doing 
causes the diaphragms to fill and empty, the 
valves to move back and forth on their seats and 
the index to register the volume of gas which 
has passed. — 

The gas enters the meter and passes through 
an opening in the upper horizontal partition to 
the valve enclosure. Then it enters either of two 
sheepskin diaphragms or bellows, or the compart- 
ment surrounding it. The gas enters the port 
leading into the diaphragm which is opening and 
furthers continued movement of the valves. 

The action of filling and opening one of the 
diaphragms expels part of the gas surrounding 
the diaphragm in the compartment and the ex- 
pelled gas is directed by a “D” slide valve through 
the center or outlet port and into the outlet pipe, 
from whence it is used by the customer. The 
diaphragm movement in this operation rotates 
the crank and changes the relative position of the 
valve covers. 

Gas flowing into the valve enclosure is distrib- 
uted into the diaphragms or case compartments 
surrounding them, according to the position of 
the valves. Pressure is exerted on the diaphragm 
or case compartment ready to receive the gas, 
and this pressure reverses movement of the 
affected diaphragm and expels the gas in the 
diaphragm or compartment, the gas passing 
through the same port by which it entered. The 
gas then continues through the center valve port 
and thence into the outlet port as in the first 
instance. 

The action of filling one diaphragm may be 
said to be included in one phase of a cycle, the 
emptying a second phase and, as the operation 
of the second diaphragm on the opposite side of 
the partition is exactly the same, we have four 
phases to one cycle or complete operation of 
the meter during which the valve crank makes 
one revolution. 

On the crank is a worm to which is geared a 
spindle which also is connected with the index— 
the three small dials familiar to everyone—on 
the face of the meter. The gas meter reader can 
tell how much gas has passed through the meter 
by reading the dials. 


Features of the Gas Meter: 


The gas meter used by every consumer em- 
braces four outstanding features. The meter is 
simple in operation, is accurate, is controlled only 
by the consumer of the gas passing through it 
and assures a uniform supply of gas because of 
its double-bellows and compartment arrange- 
ment. 


12 


NOMA NN 


oR 280066 
How to Read Your Meter: 


Anyone can easily learn to read a gas meter 
and check the amount of gas used through it 
each month. Suppose the hands of the dials are 
pointed like this: then two things must be done. 





First—reading from left to right, take the 
smaller of the two figures next to the hand on 
each dial. On the dials shown above, these are 
546. Then two ciphers are added to these figures 
(in this case it is 54,600) and from the figures 
thus obtained is subtracted the meter reading of 
the previous month as shown on the last gas bill. 
The result is the cubic feet of gas used during 
the month. ; 








HOW TO USE THIS BULLETIN: 


There are four ends of speech, or four purposes 
for which men express themselves: first, to make 
an idea clear; second, to make an idea impres- 
sive; third, to make people believe; and fourth, 
to cause people to act. 


Suggested topics for theme writing; oral eng- 
lish and current topics discussions. 


1. To Make an Idea Clear: 
Describe the manufacture of gas. 
Describe the operation of a gas meter. 
2. To Make an Idea Impressive: 
Give the difficulties surmounted in introduc- 
ing gas lighting. 
Tell what gas has done for industry. 
Describe the future made possible by exten- 
sive gas use. 
3. To Convince: 
Debate. Resolved: That Manufactured Gas is 
the Most Efficient Modern Fuel. 
4. To Secure Action: 


We should make all our large cities smoke- 


less. 
Gas will conserve our coal resources. 
Miscellaneous Topics: 


1. The men who have made manufactured — 


gas practical. 


2. What we can do with the by-products of 
gas. . 


3. The greater cleanliness of using gas. De: | 






ll 


